ABCDE: An Enduring Education Reform for a Sustainable Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka’s forthcoming education reform of 2026 proposes sweeping changes—competency-based curricula, modular learning, digital integration, and vocational pathways—to address inequities and prepare youth for a globalized world. A careful look at the education reforms of the past, however, reveals that structural and curricular adjustments alone cannot effect the desired transformation. Rather, the reforms should be realized within a moral and attitudinal framework if they are to produce changes that endure. Using an interpretive reflection of the author's lived experiences within Sri Lanka's school reality, and validating it against the existing literature, this paper thus attempts to address that gap by introducing a value-based spiral framework of—Attendance, Belongingness, Cleanliness, Discipline, and English (ABCDE), within which the proposed reform agenda should be realized. In so doing, the paper draws on existing research and national data, and aligns the model with wisdom philosophies and education reforms in the East as well as the West, such as Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path (Arya Ashtanga Marga), UNESCO’s 5P project for 2030 (People, Peace, Planet, Prosperity, Participation), and the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) of context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation. While the ABCDE framework—taken literally as the five components and figuratively as the foundational value-orienting principles—is primarily proposed as a mindful compass for reformers, school administrators, teachers, and learners toward an effective implementation of the proposed education reforms, the paper advances several propositions for translating these principles into everyday school practice. In addition, it identifies and recommends sustained stakeholder involvement and future research for the professional development and ongoing refinement of the framework. It is hoped that ABCDE, when inculcated as an everyday slogan of every educator, learner, and citizen in the country, will serve as a prerequisite in the proposed education reforms, transforming policy rhetoric to everyday transcendence, cultivating future generations who are not only employable but also enlightened, not merely competitive but citizenly.